Some time ago I was teaching an online doll making class for Adele Sciortino’s “A for Artistic”. it was a wonderful experience and a huge success. I had some very enthusiastic and talented students and I am still receiving pictures from finished dolls. This online teaching really works and is a lot of fun. The results were amazing and I want to share with you some pictures I recently received. Just a few of the many beautiful dolls my students made!

This is a doll by Yvonne Nathanson.

This beautiful piece is made by Anne Schroeder

This Juggler is made by Barbara Evans

This piece is made by Wendy Rinehart

I am really proud and happy that I could inspire these students to such wonderful work worth showing! After summer I will teach a few animal classes at A for Artistic and we are planning on repeating this doll class again next year. Look in my workshop schedule for specific dates.

Again we have had a wonderful week in Cernay la Ville near Paris where I had my yearly workshop week.
In spite of a big strike that was going on everything ran smoothly. The weather was not really warm but we have had a lot of sunshine. Janny cooked us again wonderful meals. A highlight for sure was the bore, with a second place for the canard. The pictures of the week and the results will be shown on my website. For the moment here is a group portrait with one of the dogs. On the right you can see my husband Ton and my son Sem.
Thank you Lia, Cathy, Catherine, Martha, Terry, Maggie, Erica, Ellen, Francisca, Hester and Ineke. Next year the doll holiday will not be held in Autumn but June 11 through June 18.
I am already looking forward to being in this great place in that time of the year!

Yes, yes, yes! I finally received the pictures of how the dolls from “my” Scottish girls turned out. I am very proud of them. Because these girls had no doll making background the dolls all turned out very original and fresh and full of interesting details. Very personal and different.
I cannot even tell what my favourite is. I love them all.

You can see them on http://marlaineverhelst.com/kilmarnock.htm

Good job, girls!

My new Scottish friend Stephanie Lightbown  invited me to take part in a doll project she was working on with her students of the Kilmarnock Academy near Glasgow. For their art examination the students chose a poem or a subject from literature as inspiration for a doll project. This is what they picked:
Rosie: Angel-Demon
Rachel: Neptune / Sea God
Stacey: Ribbon, Bows and Buttons
Ailie: Peacock
Abby: Icarus
Kittie: Alice in Wonderland
Lucy: Octopus, sea life
Sharmaine: The Cat and the Fiddle
Sophie: Cakes and sweets

Earlier this school year the girls, all 16 or 17 years old, started making amazing inspiration boards guided by their teacher Stephanie. They also made lots of trials and experiments on what techniques to use to finish their projects. I was only involved in the sculpting parts and the painting of these parts.
Sharmaine was the only one who did not sculpt a doll’s head. She sculpted a cat.
It was interesting and fun to be part of such a special project. I love all they did and I love them all. On the pictures you see Rosie’s piece in progress and the girls in the snow holding their sculpted parts. When I will have the pictures of the finished products I sure will show them on my website. I  am very much looking forward to see how everything will turn out.

The last week of October I was in France for my yearly Doll Holiday and Workshop Week. It is hard to believe but the weather was that good that several days we even could work outside in the sun.  Colliii – Doll Lovers Online wrote about it on:

More on my Paris page:
http://marlaineverhelst.com/parijs-eng.htm

Just returned with Ankie Daanen from our fifth “Meet the Dutch Touch” class in Houston, Texas. The picture shows our Houston hostess Marlene Slobin, who did a great job again, with the doll she made in class. The class was held in the studio of Mary Wiggins who wrote a great report on her blog.
We met our friend Janet Bodin again and we found out what these deep canals across Houston are built for: what a rain! Never seen so much water in  my life and believe me: we surely have some rain experience in The Netherlands. Mary’s huge backyard changed into a complete lake and for a moment we thought we needed to have a slumber party with our dolls.
And the good thing was that the weather couldn’t be better on the days that Ankie and I had some free time to sit in the sun so I got home with a sun tan.
But who cares about the weather when you can have so much fun together with making dolls. All twelve dolls in class turned out really wonderful. Marlene Slobin and Mary Wiggins will host the “Meet the Dutch Touch” class again in April 2012. That seems far away, but time flies. One of our students was Sherry Goshon, who offered to host the class in September 2012. Iowa, here we come!

From May 2009 new online lessons will be available
about finishing a doll:
painting your doll
making a body
costuming
and hair and hats
It is possible to sign up for all four lessons or one or more of the separate lessons.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you might have any further questions.

Marlaine

We are in the third week of my online sculpting class with an active and talented group. On the class forum I have posted two interesting sites:
www.beautyanalysis.com
showing the ‘perfect face’ based on phi (golden ratio) with a lot of examples and differences in age, sex and race. And of course how to check if your own face is perfect. I am sure we all are perfect. Could be interesting when sculpting faces.

One of the students asked me about making wings. I don’t have much experience with wings for dolls, the wings I made were for my animals and are too rough but maybe this could be useful if you want to make a doll with wings:
http://lindasmithoriginals.com/tutorials/cicada-wings/wingsblogad.jpg
and
http://lindasmithoriginals.com/blog/2009/01/18/tutorial-faux-cicada-wings

Also working now on new online classes about painting, the body, clothing and hair and hats.

Together with Ankie Daanen I will be teaching the ‘Meet the Dutch Touch’ class on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in May 2010. Sounds really exotic to me. We will have a wonderful hostess, Marla, who I already have met in my 2008 Paris Doll Holiday and Workshop Week. If you are interested please click here for further details.
Pictures of the results of one of the Meet the Dutch Touch workshops: Meet the Dutch Touch New York City area 2008
For me it will be my second visit to Canada. Years ago I was in Ottawa for teaching a porcelain sculpting class. My aunt Ann lives there and of course I have visited her.

My yearly workshop in France was a party again. From The Netherlands we had Ans, Erica, Ineke, Marie and Tosca. Ans and Erica were there for the 5th time. From Australia Sharon, from Belarus Kristina, from Canada Marla and from the USA Gayle and Leslie. Several family members were joining the workshop participants and had a great time in France as well. We had a colorful and inspiring group and the weather was good (and so was the French wine). We even had some Summer days. The results of the workshop are awesome:
Pictures 2008 workshop.
The next Paris Doll Holiday and Workshop will take place from October 24th – October 31st 2009.